


Becoming One Again

by HiddenTreasures



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Bad Wolf, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Reunion, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-15
Updated: 2017-05-15
Packaged: 2018-10-31 23:07:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10909344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HiddenTreasures/pseuds/HiddenTreasures
Summary: Rose and the TARDIS conspire once more to become Bad Wolf to bring Rose home after the tragic events of Doomsday.





	Becoming One Again

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for @doctorroseprompts prompt of “Bad Wolf reveal”, and I suppose it technically counts for their newest set of prompts about Bad Wolf physically changing Rose.
> 
> This was beta-ed by the incomparable @chocolatequeennk.

“This translates as ‘Bad Wolf Bay’.”

The Doctor couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it, even as his hearts felt like they were being squeezed too tightly in his chest.

Before he could continue his conversation with Rose—he refused to call it a goodbye—her eyes flashed gold and she swayed on her feet.

“A message, to lead myself here,” she murmured, and panic seized the Doctor’s hearts when her voice took on the ethereal quality reminiscent of her time as Bad Wolf.

“Rose! Rose, no!”

“I want you safe. My Doctor. My Doctor and his Rose.”

Golden light rippled beneath her skin, and he could hear Jackie screaming from somewhere in the background, but it was barely audible through the roaring of blood in his ears.

“Rose, please,” he begged. He’d taken it out of her! He’d taken Bad Wolf out!

“I can see everything. All that is, all that was, all that ever could be. And this is wrong,” she proclaimed, her voice firm.

The Doctor watched in terrified awe as Rose turned away from him and alarms started sounding throughout the TARDIS. He glanced over at the monitor and his breath caught in his throat as he saw the gap he’d found was not shrinking, like he’d expected, but it was being wrenched wide open.

The glow faded from Rose’s skin, and he heard her murmur, “Bye, Mum.”

She started flickering before his eyes and he heard Jackie shouting, and the Doctor couldn’t seem to make his muscles move as he waited with bated, hopeful breath.

 _Please, please, please_ …

Rose disappeared from the projection, and a lump lodged in his throat as he crossed his fingers and started bouncing on the balls of his toes.

Suddenly, the TARDIS glowed a blinding gold, making him cover his eyes and cringe away. Then the light was gone, and in its place was Rose. Rose in a crumpled heap on the ground.

“Rose!” He sprinted up to her and began fluttering his hands around her body. She opened her eyes and he breathed a sigh of relief when he didn’t see any traces of golden light.

“Rose, are you all right, love?” he asked, fluttering his hands around his body.

But she stood up wordlessly and walked over to the place he’d just vacated. The Doctor balked when Jackie was suddenly the projection in the console room.

“I’m fine, Mum,” Rose whispered, reaching out as though to touch her mum. Jackie was reaching out too, and the elder woman sobbed when Rose’s hand went through her own. _Just an image. No touch._

“I made it home,” Rose said. “I’m safe. I love you. I’ll miss you. Goodbye.”

The projection of Jackie warped, and her cry of her daughter’s name was cut off as the gap finally snapped shut, like it should have done thirty seconds ago.

“Rose,” he breathed, walking up to her.

She turned to look at him and offered him a weary smile.

“My Doctor,” she murmured. She reached up to cradle his cheek, and he leaned into her touch, relishing being able to touch her again. It had been a very long two weeks without her.

But then Rose’s eyes rolled in the back of her head, and she collapsed.

“Rose? Rose!”

The Doctor’s hearts were hammering against his ribs as he dropped to his knees beside her.

“Don’t do this to me, love,” he begged, fluttering his fingers frantically at her neck and wrist, checking for a pulse.

He breathed a sigh of relief when he felt a strong, healthy pulse, but the relief was short-lived when Rose remained unconscious on the floor of the TARDIS. As gently as he could, he scooped her into his arms and cradled her to his chest as he sprinted to the infirmary.

He immediately hooked her up to machines that would monitor her breathing and heart rate. Her vitals were as stable as if she were merely sleeping, but she was lying so still. His swallowed hard; he’d missed her terribly, indescribably, in the two weeks since she’d been lost to the parallel world. He’d tried everything to get her back, and would’ve given anything to have her home again, but not at the cost of her life. Never that. He didn’t know what was worse, the agony of her being locked away from in in a parallel universe, or being right beside him but completely unresponsive.

He barely noticed what he was doing as he numbly scanned Rose with a variety of instruments, gathering as much data as he could. He kept his eyes peeled to her vitals monitor as he did so, watching out for any blip that might appear. But they remained strong and steady.

Once he scanned her thoroughly with every piece of equipment he had, he started the download of data onto the computer, and pulled up a chair to wait. He settled at her bedside and took her hand in his. She was soft and warm to the touch, and something in his chest broke.

“Come back, Rose,” he whispered, feeling his eyes burning with the stress and exhaustion of the past couple weeks. “Please, love. Please don’t leave me. Not again. Please.”

He continued begging to her as though he could will her back into consciousness. He needed her with him, so much that it frightened him. But these last two years with her as his best friend, and these last two months with her as his lover, had not been nearly enough to satisfy the rest of his forever.

Nearly an hour later, his computer bleeped, indicating the download was finished. He glanced back at the computer, then down at Rose. He gave her fingers a squeeze and pressed a long kiss to her knuckles before he rolled his chair to sit in front of his computer.

His breath wheezed out of him when the numbers and figures flashed across the screen.

“Impossible,” he breathed, scrolling through the data. “ _Impossible!_ ”

But he should’ve known by now that when it came to Rose Tyler, nothing was impossible.

oOoOo

Her dreams had never felt so ethereal. Or so… yellow. Everything was tinged with a bright, golden light, and distorted, dissonant voices were echoing everywhere, giving her a headache. But the most beautiful song was singing. It was such a beautiful but haunting melody, and Rose didn’t know if she wanted the music to stop or to never stop.

Then someone was calling her name, and she looked around for the source of the voice, but she couldn’t see anyone thought the yellow haze. But then yellow was fading, and a harsh white light was replacing it, making her eyes burn and her temples throb.

Rose moaned and threw her arms over her face, trying to block out the harsh lighting.

“Rose! Rose, can you hear me?”

The voice was too loud and too close, and it sounded far too panicked than she wanted that voice to sound.

“Yeah, I can hear you,” she mumbled. “Shoutin’ at me, aren’t you?”

Rose grunted and cautiously removed her arms from her eyes, but thankfully someone turned down the lights, and opening her eyes no longer hurt. She blinked slowly, trying to orient herself, and trying to remember the last thing that had happened, but she couldn’t seem to focus.

“Oh, Gods, Rose! I was so worried! How do you feel? Any aches or pains? Any nausea? Dizziness?”

“My head’s killin’ me,” she muttered, rubbing her palms against her forehead, and she looked over at the voice that had been speaking.

It belonged to her Doctor. He looked pale and exhausted, and Rose’s heart lurched in her stomach when her head cleared enough to allow for memory recall. She remembered standing on a freezing beach another universe away, her Doctor lost to her forever.

“Doctor!” she breathed.

She pushed herself out of bed, despite his squeaking protests, and she stumbled right into his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held him fiercely, never wanting to let go again.

“I missed you,” she whimpered, feeling her eyes burn with the heartache of the last four months.

“Oh, Rose, I missed you too,” he whispered, holding her just as tightly. “So much. I’m so happy you’re home.”

“What happened?” she asked, pulling back to look at him. “I remember a lot of yellow light, but nothing else.”

The Doctor’s mouth worked for several seconds, but nothing came out. Rose reached out and rested her hands on his chest, stroking up and down soothingly. His hearts were racing, but his muscles relaxed at the familiar, calming gesture, and he covered her hands with his.

“Let’s take this somewhere more comfortable?” he suggested. “Unless you’re still tired and want to sleep some more?”

She was still tired, but she was too curious to sleep, so she shook her head and let him lead her from the room. His hand was clasped tightly around hers as he guided her into the library, where a roaring fire was burning in the hearth and a tray of tea and biscuits was waiting for them in front of their cozy loveseat.

The Doctor urged her to sit and he gave her a packet of biscuits to munch on as he fixed up their tea, making it perfectly the way she liked it.

After they’d been sipping in silence for a few minutes, Rose asked softly, “You gonna explain?”

The Doctor smiled sheepishly at her, and cupped his mug in his hands as he admitted, “I don’t really know where to start.”

“The beginning’s usually a safe bet,” she teased, nudging him in the ribs.

He grinned and nodded, then said, “Do you remember what I told you about Bad Wolf last year?”

Rose nodded, recalling the quite brief conversation they’d had just after his regeneration, when he explained to her what had happened.

“Well, there’s more,” he continued, rubbing his thumb along the lip of his mug. “You remember that I took Bad Wolf out of you? Well, that’s not quite true, it seems. Because Bad Wolf is you and the TARDIS together, as a new entity, in your body. And the TARDIS is quite a force to be reckoned with. Not easily removed from where she feels she belongs. And… well…”

He looked at her helplessly, as though hoping she would put it together on her own.

“And the TARDIS is still inside me?” Rose guessed, feeling a little lightheaded at the idea.

“Her energy flows through you,” the Doctor said, nodding. “You two were so deeply connected in ways I couldn’t possibly begin to fathom. That connection wasn’t as easily broken as I thought.”

“You’d said Bad Wolf was killing me!” Rose said, suddenly startled.

“You’re fine!” he assured quickly, his eyes widening. “I promise, you’re fine. You’re, er, more than fine, actually.”

He glanced away from her and sniffed as he took his sonic out of his pockets and pointed it at the television mounted to the wall. The TV was suddenly filled with pictures and figures and numbers, most of which Rose didn’t understand.

“I hope you’re planning on translating,” she said, smirking at him.

But he didn’t smile back, and a sense of foreboding crept over her.

“These are the results of the scans from your last physical exam,” the Doctor said, pulling out a remote control from his pocket. He made the screen split into two, and he pointed to the left half of the screen. “These are the results from the tests I just performed.”

Rose stared at them, and felt like she was playing one of those spot the differences games. The Doctor, thankfully, continued on before she could get too caught up on the details.

“Everything about you is enhanced,” he said. “From your blood cell count, to the background Artron and Huon radiation. The only thing that hasn’t improved is your DNA and cellular degradation. That has come to a screeching halt. Now, take a look at this…”

He clicked a few buttons on the remote and flipped through a few data files before he found the one he was looking for. He made the television screen go split screen again, with Rose’s latest test results and the new data.

“Looks identical?” Rose asked hesitantly, squinting to see if she could find a difference between the two.

“Not quite,” the Doctor said, “but I’m not showing you those parts, so yes. They’re identical. And those are scans from my last physical exam, taken right after I regenerated.”

“What’s it mean that my scans look exactly like yours?” she asked quietly, her eyes flickering back and forth between the impossible data on the screen.

“It means that your physiology is much more similar to mine than it is to a human’s,” the Doctor whispered, and Rose’s stomach clenched at the utter misery she heard in his voice.

“But… I still have one heart,” Rose said, her head spinning at this new information. She pressed a hand to her chest to verify that yes, only one heart was thumping in her chest.

“Yeah, still just one heart, but everything else…”

“Wait,” Rose said suddenly. “You said my cells and DNA weren’t degrading… Does this mean I’ll live as long as you?”

An odd expression pinched the Doctor’s face, and before she could begin to identify it, he ducked his head and whispered, “Yeah. Near enough.”

“And…” Her stomach coiled uncomfortably. She’d thought… But maybe… “And is that bad?”

The Doctor glanced up at her, and she finally placed the emotion on his face: joy disguised with guilt.

“Bad? No, I don’t think it’s bad, but the thing is, I should think it’s bad, because I’ve condemned you to centuries of danger and heartbreak and watching people you love grow old and die! You have no idea how that feels, and I never wanted you to know how that feels.”

“But I’d be with you,” she said, covering his shaking hand. “And you’d be with me. Don’t you see, Doctor? We’d be together. I meant what I told you that day in Torchwood: I made my decision, and I’m _never_ going to leave you. Not if I can help it. Or didn’t you believe me?”

The Doctor set his half-drunk mug of tea on the table, and Rose mirrored him, before she leaned into his open arms.

“I wanted to believe it,” he rasped into her ear. “Oh, Rose, you have no idea how I wanted to believe it. But you were human… you were bound to leave me one day, one way or another.”

“And now?” Rose prompted, cradling his head against her shoulder.

“I believe it,” he vowed, pulling back to look at her. “I believe it, and I want it. Oh, Rose, I want it so much. I want you, forever.”

Rose grinned at him, feeling happier than she had in months. She shifted her weight carefully until she was straddling the Doctor’s thighs, and she tugged him in for a gentle kiss. She felt like she could cry when she felt the soft pressure of his lips against hers, something she thought she’d never feel again.

With that thought, she abruptly broke the kiss.

“So how does all this explain how I came home?” she asked, staring down at the Doctor, who looked rumpled and dazed.

“Hmm? Oh, that.” He cleared his throat and blinked rapidly as though to clear his head, then he said, “Bad Wolf. As I said, the TARDIS’s energy is still flowing in you and through you. The TARDIS is a creature of immense power, beyond anything even the Time Lord had been able to fully understand. So I can only offer you my best guess. But I think she was able to manipulate the very fabric of time and reality itself. She can see everything that ever was or ever could be. Billions upon billions of timelines of all of the could have beens and might have beens and will bes. And she knows what should be, and she makes it so. I think she managed to secure the gap between walls of the universe and somehow make them bigger. And then you and the TARDIS were one once more, and she used it to bring you home.”

The awe and reverence in his voice made Rose flush with an embarrassed pride. He was looking up at her like she personally made the universe just for him, and her heart swelled with love.

She leaned down again and caught his lips between hers to continue the aborted kiss from earlier.

He reciprocated enthusiastically. His hands scrabbled against her—at her back, at her bum, at her shoulders—looking for leverage to pull her closer. Heat and desire swooped low in her belly, and Rose shifted against him to get a bit of friction. It had been months since she had made love with the Doctor, and she was impatient to get him into bed.

The Doctor moaned into the kiss as she scraped her nails through his hair and ground down against him.

“Brilliant as this feels,” he gasped. “And really, it’s so brilliant. Feels so good. Do you think we can move this to the bedroom? Much more comfy.”

“Yeah,” Rose murmured, even as she continued kissing his face, tracing his freckles with her lips. “I love you, my Doctor. I’m so happy I’m home.

The Doctor’s breath hitched, and he wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug.

“Oh, Rose, I’m so happy you’re home, too,” he said fervently. “So happy. I missed you so much, love. More than I could ever tell you.”

Rose placed a parting kiss to his cheek and slowly crawled off of him. She stood up and tugged him to his feet, before she took his hand in hers and guided them across the hall and to their bedroom.


End file.
